William ball



No. 8,602 PATENTED DEC. 23, 1851.

w. BALL.

ELEVATING ROTARY PUMP.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

WILLIAM BALL, OF OHIGOPEE, MASSACHUSETTS.

PUMP FOR ELEVATING WATER MIXED WITIT MINERAL SUBSTANCES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 8,602, dated. December23, 1851; Reissued September 12, 1854, No. 276.

T0 all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, VVILLIAM BALL, of Chicopee, in the county of Hampdenand State of Massachusetts, have invented a new and useful improvementin rotary pumps or machines for elevating from a lower to a higher levela mixture ofwater or liquid and auriferous sand or other mineral mattersin a state of comminut-ion; and I do hereby declare that the same isfully do scribed and represented in the. following specification andaccompanying drawings, letters, figures, and references thereof.

In conveying from a machine for washing ores to an amalgamating machine,water charged with auriferous sand or gravel a rotary pump or elevatingapparatus is found very convenient as it avoids the necessity of placing.thewashing machine at a level above the top of the amalgamator. Amachine such as I have heretofore used consisted of a circular drum orchamber having a fan wheel revolving in it and so arranged orconstructed as to receive the mixture of Water and earthy particlesthrough the central part of one side of the chamber and drive or throwit up through a pipe leading out of the top or periphery of the drum. Asof necessity the axle or shaft of the rotating fan wheel must passthrough and rotate in one side of the drum or case, it has been foundthat it or the hole through which it passes soon becomes worn to suchextent as to enable much of the sand and water to escape out of the pumpand through the said hole or space between it and the shaft, suchwearoften being so great as to create a serious waste when au riferous sandis running through the pump, such waste often amounting to two or threedollars worth of gold per day. The wear of the various parts of the pumpin consequence of the sand or gritty particles becoming introducedbetween varlous of the still and moving surfaces of the pump has been aserious evil and which it is the object of my improvement orimprovements to prevent to a very great degree.

Figure 1 of the aforementioned drawings represents a top view of one ofmy improved ore pumps or elevators. Fig. 2 is a view of one side of it.Fig. 3 is a view of the other side of it. Fig. 4 is a vertical, central,and longitudinal section of it, and

Fig. 5 is a vertical, central, and transverse section of it.

In the said drawings A denotes the outer case of the pump which case iscomposed of two meniscus shaped plates (Z, c, placed and confinedtogether with their convexities outward or in opposite directions toeach other. They have flanched peripheries that are confined together byscrews (4, a, &c. An induction opening or passage 6, is made through thecentral part of one of the plates, viz. e, which opening leads out of ahopper or trough f, that is cast or formed on the side of the part c,and so made as to be capable of receiving the liquid auriferous mud andallowing it to flow into the passage 6, such mud or mixture of ore andwater being con-- veyed into the trough f by means of a spout leadingfrom the ore washing machine.

A fan wheel B plays or rotates within the case A, it being mounted on anaxle D, which extends through the central part of the disk (Z, and 'issupported in bearings h, 2', made on a frame F which is secured to theoutside of the case A, or placed as seen in the drawings. The said axleor shaft has a driving pulley G, fixed on it around'the periphery ofwhich pulley an endless belt from a driving drum is made to play or run.

To the internal surface of each disk I screw or aflix a circularmetallic ring 70, or Z, which has a form in cross section as seen inFig. 5. These rings divide the internal part of the case A into twoconcentric chambers m, n, which are connected together by a very thinspace 79, left between the two rings. The fan wheel B, rotates withinthe inner chamber m the form of the fans being rep resented in thedrawings, they being of a lozenge shape or approximation thereto.

Out of the external chamber and tangentially to it or thereabouts Icarry the discharge pipe K. The object of the two chambers m, a,connected by a thin passage just wide enough to allow the requisitequantity of the sandy liquid to flow through it, is to prevent wear ofthe joint or packing between the two plates (Z, c, for it is found thatwithout some such an arrangement or means the rapid rotation of thewater and sand in the case A caused by the fan wheel will very soon wearout the packing and the joint. In my improved pump the greater part ofthe rotation of the liquid takes place within the inner chamber whilethe liquid in the outer concentric chamber in consequence of the backpressure of the column of water in the discharge pipe scarcely revolves,or does so to so small an extent as to do no very material damage to theouter packing or joint of the plates of the case A.- Whenever the rings70, Z, are too much worn they may readily be removed and otherssubstituted as they are liable to wear out very soon.

Closely surrounding the axle or shaft D (but not sufiiciently tight toprevent the rotation of the shaft), and against the plate or disk (Z ofthe case A, I make a chamber 9, and within the said chamber and on theshaft I place and fix a small wheel r whose side is nearly in contactwith the side of the case A. At the bottom of the chamber (7 and throughthe plate d of the case A, I make a small hole or passage 25 leadingfrom the chamber into the case A.

Whatever water and auriferous sand that may work through the shaft holeof the case A, will flow against and be caught by the wheel 1-, duringits rapid revolutions, and be thrown toward and off the periphery of thewheel and against the contiguous .surface of the chamber g, and fromthence will descend toward and pass or be sucked through the passage tand into the case A. The wheel thus prevents the water and sand fromcoming in contact with that part of the chamber 9 which is immediatelycontiguous to and surrounding the axle, and thereby'not only preventswear of the shaft hole of the chamber but the escape of the fluid andsand and consequent loss of gold or metal.

I claim- The improvement by which the waste, auriferous, or earthywaterthat leaks out of the shaft hole of the case A is saved and returns intothe body of the case, and the wear of the shaft hole of the chamber qprevented, the said improvement consisting in the chamber g, the wheel1", and the passage t, as combined together, connected with the case A,and the shaft of the fan wheel, zftingl made to operate substantially asspeci- In testimony whereof I have hereto set my signature, this thirdday of November A. D. 1857.

IVM. BALL.

Witnesses:

PHILANDER H. STREETER, WM. WHEELER.

[Fms'r PRINTED 1913.]

